The present invention relates to a charge control device that controls the operation of a battery charger for a travel battery mounted on an electric vehicle.
An electric vehicle or a plug-in hybrid vehicle includes a travel battery that supplies an electric power to a travel driving source, and a battery charger that charges the travel battery. When a power supply that is supplied to an outlet of a housing is used as an external power supply for charging the travel battery, it is desired to charge the travel battery with the use of a late-night electric power cheaper in power charges than a normal electric power (daytime electric power). Under the circumstance, there has been proposed a related-art technique in which a charging start time for starting to charge the travel battery is set for a battery charger by the aid of a remote controller so that the battery charger starts charging operation at the charge start time, and means for selectively making setting of the charge start time effective or ineffective is provided (refer to JP-A-2010-142026). In using this battery charger, a user appropriately sets the charge start time in a predetermined time zone of the late-night electric power, for example from 23:00 night to 8:00 the next day.
However, in the above related-art technique, because a termination time of the charging operation is not set, the charging operation may not be terminated even if it exceeds the time zone of the late-night electric power. This situation occurs, for example, when the amount of charge at the charge start time of the travel battery is very small, and a charging time required for full charge exceeds the time zone of the late-night electric power, or when the charge start time is later than the start time in the time zone of the late-night electric power. Since such situations occur, there is room for improvement in satisfying the intention of the user who intends to charge the travel battery by the aid of only the late-night electric power.